China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Engineer
Major
Largest by weight but ZQ-3 only has a effective payload in the single digits ton when recovering the booster.
Where did you get that from?
That's ZQ-3B or whatever they call it with TQ-12B engines, the current version only uses TQ-12A and has single digit reusable payload and 12t fully expended.
That's not the current version, that's the full version. The rocket used in this experiment has a non recovery capacity of 11.8 tons and a recovery capacity of 8 tons. In the future, TQ-12A and TQ-15A will be changed to TQ-12B and TQ-15B to achieve the goals you mentioned.
I think they're calling the upgraded version Zhuque 3E, which, in addition to the engine upgrade, will have stretched tanks.
Based on a frame from a Landspeace promotional video, It's speculated that To reduce the range of the first stage, the ZQ-3 first-stage rocket shuts down at a higher altitude, resulting in a steeper reentry and earlier ignition and deceleration. ZQ-3’s landing ignition started in the supersonic/transonic speed range, rather than the F9's Mach 0.7 to 0.9.
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One thing I've been wondering about Landspace, insofar as their launching from Jiuquan, is the issue of downrange landing locations. If one launches from the coast, then a droneship can be positioned downrange on the groundtrack of whatever inclination they happen to be launching to that day. But for inland missions there would presumably be a need for a decent number of landing pads, otherwise you'd be incurring a significant payload penalty by forcing the second stage to fly a significant dogleg trajectory.
This is a moot point if they intend to fly most of their missions out of Wenchang, but nevertheless, are there plans for multiple ground-based pads for Jiuquan that anyone is aware of?
This is a moot point if they intend to fly most of their missions out of Wenchang, but nevertheless, are there plans for multiple ground-based pads for Jiuquan that anyone is aware of?